Tokyo Ghoul: The Other Story
Chapter 2: Investigation
"My name is Tooru Mutsuki, I'm pleased to be here!" Mutsuki said giving his new teacher a respectful bow, this was one way to make a good first impression and the others just hoped that Mutsuki hadn't forgotten why they were here.
"My name is Kuki Urie" Urie said with his back straight meeting his teacher in the eye, he wanted to put is prey at unease and show him that he wasn't going to be easy to impress. But if Sasaki/Kaneki felt any bit nervous of the boy in front of him he didn't show it, instead he smiled pleasantly at Urie and held out his hand in a western way,
"Urie-kun" Sasaki said "Your report says a cleaver lad, I'm lucky to have a student like you in my class" Urie eyes widened a little in shock that the ghoul would bother to read their reports, he didn't expect this guy to be any good of a teacher believing that humans are the superior species. He shook the thought out of this head, maybe the teacher was bluffing? Yeah that was it! So he shook his teacher's hand making a mental note to wash it later.
"Ginshi Shirazu" Shirazu said holding out his hand, obviously less concerned about touching a possible ghoul, Sasaki looked pleasantly surprised and took the boys hand then his eyes moved to the girl at the back who looked more tired than anything else. Haise noticed the dark bags under the girl's eyes and all the biscuit crumbs around her face, she made no effort to wipe the crumbs off instead she stared at the teacher then held out her hand which also had cookie crumbs on.
"Saiko Yonebayashi" She said introducing herself, Sasaki looked at her outstretched hand warningly trying to hide his disgust and forcing a smile and quickly shook the girl's hand.
Once introductions where done it was time for a quick talk about the course.
"I'm sure that the Head of Department has spoken to you about this already" Sasaki-sensei said to the group "but as you're main course tutor it's my job to go over it for you again, mainly you're classes would be with me and you will learn about Japanese Literature but you also have other lessons I believe some being maths and Asian history am I right?"
The group nodded, they knew what was coming because the Head of Department and some of the collage staff had told them about his already
"Because you have started later than usual it means you are going to be behind the other students" Sasaki said solemnly "It means I will have to give you extra homework and probably some catch up sessions to get you ahead with everyone else, but I don't want you to stress about it, just work at the pace that you're good at and you will do just fine and remember that my door is always open if you need support"
"Thanks you Sensei" Mutsuki said happily, he looked generally excited to be here but the others had other things on their minds wondering how they could prove or expose this guy to be a ghoul (All expect Saiko who was thinking about video games).
Finally some of the students started to file in staring at the new students in curiosity, Sasaki-sensei told them to sit anywhere they liked while he sorted out some text books for them. By nine all the students where present, the four new student had to get up in front of the class introduce themselves quickly before sitting down and taking their seats.
The lesson ran on very smoothly, the four sat on a row at the middle but it was only Mutsuki who seemed to paying any attention to what the teacher was saying and writing down notes. Saiko looked ready to fall asleep and it seemed that only Urie and Shirazu who seemed to be paying close attention, not to the Sasaki's voice but in his actions. How he interacted with the other students or if there was any discomfort, fickleness or jumpiness which most ghouls seemed to have when they were 'walking on the tightrope' but there was none of that with Sasaki.
Haise Sasaki didn't seem nervous or controlling when he stood in front of the class, his shoulders where high due to his position as a teacher but he was calm and confident. When a student asked a question or needed help he was more than happy to explain in a simple way slowly or quickly depending on that students abilities. He also laughed with the other students and also couldn't help but join in on the banter but it didn't distract him from the lesson, once they had their five minute laugh it was back to work.
Urie had to admit even though he didn't give a shit about the lesson itself Sasaki-sensei for someone quite young was a very good teacher, but there was one thing was puzzled him though. On Centipedes/Kaneki Kens profile his teachers, peers and employer had described him as a shy and reserved lad who didn't interact with many of his peers or the adults. He had also been described as depressed but Sasaki-sense wasn't showing any off those signs.
Sasaki was outgoing, talkative, friendly and certainly showed no signs of depression, could a person's nature change in over three years? Or was he just a good actor? If so he was a very good one.
Suddenly the bell rang at 11 o'clock, they had a fifteen minute break then they had an hour of maths then an hour of lunch then the rest of the afternoon was in Asian History until they could go home at three. The rest of the students filed out but the four hung back for Sasaki to speak to them.
"So how was your first day?" Sasaki asked the group once everyone had left, he seemed to look a little nervous for once, obviously wanting a good review.
"It was great!" Mutsuki blurted out "I don't think I've learnt go much in one day".
"Well I'm glad to see enjoyed yourself Mutsuki-kun" Sasaki said "I know you are going to catch up no problem, Urie-kun and Shirazu-kun" He turned towards the other two boys "You two seemed to be listening intensely but you didn't put anything down on your paper, I know it must be hard to catch up with everyone else but don't be afraid to put your hand up to ask for help or if you need to me to clarify something because I can't have you in every lesson listening but not writing down any notes or not doing your work, if so I might have to think about giving you extra lessons and I'm sure that would be blow to your pride".
Shirazu and Urie glanced at each other quickly, extra lessons is something those two didn't need to deal with especially with the investigations.
"I'm sure there will be no need for sensei" Urie solemnly "I will be sure to take my notes down this break time" Shirazu nodded in agreement then Sasaki turned to Saiko and Saiko stared back unresponsive to Sasaki's worried gaze.
"However Yonebayashi-san mostly slept in that lesson" They have all heard this, about Saiko's laziness and sleeping in lectures when they were students in the Academy but Sasaki surprised them.
"I'm quite worried about your health Yonebayashi-san" He said instead "You look really pale and those bags under your eyes don't look so good, you should try going to bed earlier ok?" Saiko's eyes widened clearly quite shocked they she wasn't going to get lectured on her attitude but more on her well-being, what teacher does that? She nodded in understanding. "Oh and lay off the cookies and sweets" The sensei added "I don't think they are doing you any good ether".
The others nodded their thanks to the teacher and went off to enjoy their fifteen break and find their next class. Once the kids had gone Kaneki sighed and slumped in his chair and brushed his hand though his fringe, this class had probably been the most stressful he had had since his very first class three months ago. He wasn't too sure why but his instincts and common sense told him that something was fishy about his new students, but he will have to think about it another time and maybe he should talk to Hinami or Hide about it later but right now he had to prepare for his next class.
Xxx
"So what do we think of him?" Shirazu said once they were walking down the corridor to find their next class "He seems pretty normal to me".
"It's only been a couple of hours" Urie argued back "we might have to stay for a few more weeks until we can be 100% certain if he's centipede or not" but his heart wasn't really into it, he had showed none of the signs of a ghoul and he didn't fit centipedes or Ken Kaneki's personality profile but he was sure he would know the truth by lunch time.
He decided to turn his attention Mutsuki "Don't get to caught up in the lesson Mutsuki" He said turning to the green haired boy "Remember we are here as ghoul investigators not students, I suppose you didn't see anything ghoul like about him?"
"Yeah Mutsuki was sure shucking up to him!" Shirazu said laughing, Mutsuki blushed.
"One of us has to be the good kid in that class" Mutsuki said in defense and he reached into his school bag and fished out the notes to Urie and Shirazu "I copied notes down in his class for you guys to copy, we need to look like normal hard working students or he going to be paying close attention to us and that's not what we want".
"Mutsuki's got a point Urie" Shirazu said shrugging "We don't have the time to be attending extra lessons we might have multitask, do the work and watch him at the same time".
Urie nodded in agreement "And we are going to have to make sure that Saiko gets more sleep…"
Xxx
Second period moved on quickly and soon it was lunchtime, the best time to discover if Sasaki-sensei was a ghoul or not. Urie had been looking forward to this moment but there was only one problem, where does Haise Sasaki have his lunch? The staff room? The shops? The local coffee shop? The collage cafeteria?
So here was the battle plan, they had sent Saiko to have her lunch around the shopping centre because that was the last place Sasaki was likely to go and Saiko needed to stock up on sweets anyway. Mutsuki decided to go the coffee shop which was also less likely because even though they knew their teacher liked his coffee, there was also a coffee machine in the staff room and that's where Shirazu would be. His job was to sit on one of the benches closest to the staff room while he pretended to be studying and Urie would go where gut told him to go which was the cafeteria.
After class they went to their places, Shirazu got to his area first and found a bench that wasn't too close to the staff room to get noticed but he sat on the other side where a huge window was and if you had good eyes you could see who comes in and out of the staffroom from the other side. He took his sandwich box out and book and pretended to read. To be honest with himself this was probably the most boring stake out he had ever done! He just hoped that the others were having more fun than him.
Which was true Saiko of course as you can guess was buying sweets and checking out the latest 3DS games, Mutsuki was sitting in the local coffee shop with a book in his hand and sipping on his coffee, it was only Urie who seemed to be working as usual.
Luckily for him he had remembered to make a pack lunch instead of eating the disgusting and over prized collage food. Most people went to the shopping centre for their lunch so the cafeteria wasn't too packed so he could keep an eye out for his target. He sat at the far corner of the cafeteria on his own as he watched students and teachers alike walk passed.
He sighed in frustration, he had been sitting there for five minutes slowly nibbling on his pasta pot but he knew he had to be patent. His gut feeling told him that Sasaki would come here but negative thoughts kept prodding him saying that he must be mistaken for once and if he doesn't come doesn't that make him a ghoul? That thought filled him with hope. Oh how much he would love to slay the famous SS rank ghoul centipede, surly that was worth a good promotion?
But Urie had to reason with himself, any human can skip lunch he had to remember that his target was a teacher so he might be helping the other students? Or he could be marking papers? Or he would be in the staff room, coffee shop or shopping centre where his 'friends' might be? Or then again Urie might be just a little impatient?
Urie checked his phone to see if one of the others had texted him but they hadn't, he would just have to calm down and wait.
Xxx
Fifteen minutes later more students have come into the cafeteria, by the paint and clay on their hands Urie guessed they were art students but he didn't take any notice of them once they sat down at the table on the other side of the room. Finally Urie's waiting had paid off because his target had entered the room, so Haise Sasaki had come after all.
The target hadn't noticed Urie yet and he was carrying a lunch box in his hands. Urie then did what the CCG had trained him to do and that was to look natural and uninterested. He took out his IPhone, to anyone else he looked like he was going on an app or texting a mate but really he was videoing his targets movements so he could look back on it later. Meanwhile watching out of the corner of his eye what his target did in case he caught something that the phone didn't.
Luckily he did decide to record it or he would off missed something interesting. Sasaki sat alone on a table in the middle of the room and Urie could see Haise's profile but he hadn't noticed Urie yet then next thing a girl from the group of art students that had walked in before came up to him smiling.
Urie watched them intensely, trying to work out their relationship though their body language since he couldn't hear what was being said. They certainly weren't in a student and teacher relationship, they seemed too friendly with each other and the girl seemed to be teasing the male teacher. They couldn't be in a relationship could they? But their body language didn't look intimate but like they we're friends? Sibling's maybe? He had the girl on camera now so he would have to look her up later.
The conversation between the two didn't last any more than a minute before the girl walked off back to her friends and Sasaki turned back to his lunch box and opened it and pulled of a can of coffee and…a muffin?
This is where Urie had to watch closely, some ghouls where well practiced to eating human food. The trick was that the ghoul would swallow the food but not taste it then pretend to chew the food after it had been swallowed.
The muffin looked like it was just a plain old dough muffin with some kind of rusty red sugar on the top and Sasaki took a bite out of it and chewed it leisurely and wiped the crumbs of his face before swallowing. If this guy was a ghoul pretending to a human he was doing mighty good job of it, he even looked happy while he ate it with no signs of discomfort or disgust. After the muffin was finished he drank down his can of coffee and got up from his seat and left the room.
Urie waited for a few seconds before getting up himself, mostly after eating human food the ghoul would go a puck up the food right after before it had time to digest. There were toilets right outside the cafeteria so Sasaki must have gone there.
He quickly left the cafeteria and headed around the corner to the male toilets but when he went inside there was no one in there. He only had to check once to confirm that Sasaki hadn't been here, he couldn't smell any sick but why was that? If Sasaki was ghoul it would make sense for him to come here after eating, then his phone rung. He took his phone out to see that it was from Shirazu.
"Hey Urie" Shirazu said once Urie had answered "I've just seen Sasaki-sensei enter the staff room"
"Did he look ill or off or anything?" Urie asked desperately, Sasaki had to be centipede! The CCG couldn't be wrong now? Not when the promotion was so close!
"Sorry Urie, he looked perfectly healthy to me" Shirazu said "Why did he eat anything?"
"Yeah, a muffin and a can of coffee and he didn't go the toilet either". There was pause on the other end then Shirazu said.
"Look how about we call everyone together and discuss the situation" Shirazu suggested, "There is no point investigating any further at this moment".
That was one of the smartest things Shirazu had ever said, so they agreed and texted Mutsuki and Saiko to meet back at the college entrance.
Xxx
Kaneki had slumped down at his desk in the staff room, luckily the teachers that usually sat next to him where doing extra lessons or eating lunch so he had plenty of space to think things though. When he entered the Cafeteria today he noticed his student Kuki Urie sitting alone at the far side of the room and by the looks of it he seemed to be videoing him, years of living with a student detective and watching out for ghouls and the CCG made you notice these things.
Next thing Hinami came up to him and told him that the Art exam went well and it seemed that Kaneki had to keep his promise by letting Hinami sit in on his class this Wednesday. He wasn't sure what he felt about that, he was happy because he hadn't had a chance to teach Hinami for a while but on the other hand he felt nervous of having her in the same room as his new students practically Urie. He was also sure that Hinami had been caught on Urie's camera, he was going to have to warn Hinami about him tonight.
Where his new students investigating him? Did they work for Aogiri Tree or the CCG? Everything had been so quiet for the past three and half years it was about time something happened. He felt a sense of dread at the thought of his normal life being distorted or his new family getting hurt but he also felt a guilty twinge of excitement but he stamped it out.
Was his instincts craving for his old dangerous life of fights and cannibalism?
Again he stumped the thought out and tried to get his mind on the task he had to deal with now and that was discovering more about his new students. On their report he had read they had studied at a High School in Tokyo, there was no background on anything ghoul or CCG related and that was all the college had to go on.
Maybe he might need Hide's help on his one.
But before that he had to send Tsukiyama-san a thank you message for the muffins. If Urie-kun did work for the CCG it would off been a problem eating human food. As you can guess the muffin that Kaneki ate in the cafeteria was made of human meat disguised as a dough muffin and the red sugar on it was the same stuff the manager had made those sugar cubs from when Kaneki was trying to come to terms with his new ghoul life.
The purpose was that the muffins looked so much like normal human muffin that Hide had nearly eaten one once or twice, the only problem with them was keeping the kakugan hidden but Kaneki was already well trained in that.
Most of his and Hinami's food source now came from Tokyo delivered by either Tsukiyama-san, Touka-chan or Banjou-san it had been while since he had hunted for his own food but it couldn't be risked due to living in such a small town but why did he had the feeling that was going to change.
Xxx
The group of four met outside the college entrance, Urie told the others what he saw but he missed out the part of girl who talked to Sasaki or that that he recorded the target, he wanted to work out that one for himself.
"So he can't be a ghoul" Mutsuki said "He didn't go to the toilet after eating!"
"But that doesn't prove anything" Shirazu said "He might be just holding it in so it looks normal, some ghouls do that".
"Shirazu's right on this one" Urie said but Sasaki's face while he ate the muffin proved otherwise… "We might have to stay for another few weeks…"
"But if it's certain that he's human there is no reason for us to stay…" Shirazu started but Mutsuki interrupted him.
"Not true" Mutsuki said solemnly "remember that Sasaki-sensei is not our only target, remember there are rumours of an auction that's going to be held by ghouls somewhere outside Tokyo and this town is the most likely place it would be held".
"True" Urie said, he couldn't help but agree with Mutsuki. The squad's main mission was to investigate Haise Sasaki but their other job to find out if the rumours that a ghoul auction was taking place in this town were true, if so they had to call the CCG. The main reason they thought it would be held somewhere in this town was because a few weeks ago a ghoul nicknamed Nutcracker including some Aogiri Tree members were last seen taking the root to this town.
It was likely that they just went through this town and have already passed on somewhere else but it was even more likely that they were still here in the town setting up the auction. So ranks 3's Sakio, Urie, Shirazu and Mutsuki the less known investigators and less likely to attract attention where put on the case and if anything happened they were ordered to contact Mado straight away.
They just hoped that they wouldn't need to wait too long…
I'm sorry if the chapter was too much paragraph and I'm also sorry if there was too much Urie because seriously I hate him but he was useful for this chapter. Also how do you like my idea for the muffins?
Also I would like to thank all those who have Fav and followed, I would also like to thank tats magicalmcguffins for reviewing and help explain somethings, I would also like to thank akaiin and a guest . I'm sorry that I can't reply to guest reviews but I did Spanish in High School and I can read the review no problem it's just writing Spanish is difficult for me.
So tell me what you thought of this chapter? If would help a lot. And please don't be afraid to point out any spelling or grammar errors, if do I will give 10 cookies lol (Maybe the Saiko kind)
Thank you!
Becky4ever1996